Healing has been slow for our daughter following last Friday's emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix and a septic abdomen. (Note: it was 15mins to locate and remove her appendix and an additional hour of cleaning her abdominal cavity of infected fluid). So, throughout the week, she has battled infections, pain and hints of pneumonia.

Last night she had a follow-up CT scan and they found two more large abdominal abscesses. This morning her on-call surgeon and radiologist analyzed her scans and they debated a less-invasive drain procedure versus more-invasive abdominal surgery. We waited all day and about an hour ago we heard the conclusion: The infection is too deep and dangerous to try the drain procedure. At the same time they don't want to rush to reopen her with more surgery.

Since she is showing slow/general improvement, they've added two additional strong antibiotics. The decision was to monitor her today and tomorrow. On Monday, her regular surgeon returns and he will consult with the on-call surgeon and they will corporately decide whether or not to do more surgery.

She gets around pretty well, but she will remain in the ICU through the weekend.

Thanks for praying. It has been a long week and will continue. We are looking forward to a bounce-back without surgery!